The Comoros consists of four islands located in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar and Mozambique. Affectionately calling their country Masiwa, or “the islands”, the population totals to 1,080,000 citizens. The country, among several other small island states, is considered underdeveloped. Although the country gained independence in 1975, political and institutional crises created sustained instability. In 2012, […]
For U.N. members looking to affect real change in reforming the millennium development goals post-2015, one thing is clear: gender equality goals must be at the top of the agenda. Many argue that a lack of attention to the pervasive inequalities that plague the developing world was the key limitation of the last round of […]
Philanthropists may be tempted to rejoice that recent trends have shown that the total number of people who face chronic hunger has dropped. New surveys, however, caution those working to eradicate global poverty. The Afrobarometer is an independent, nonpartisan research project that measures the social, political and economic environment in Africa through a series of […]
Nelson Mandela’s life has been exemplary in many ways. Through his patience, his perseverance, his strength and his courage, he managed to lead South Africa through troubled social and economic times to become one of the world’s largest emerging economies and bring an end to apartheid to establish a new “Rainbow Nation” in honor of […]
São Paulo’s visionary new mayor, Fernando Haddad, plans to elevate the city’s sprawling and overcrowded slums out of abject poverty by 2020. His goal is to improve the horrible living conditions of the favelas while also halting their insurgent growth. The favela slums of São Paulo remain a brazen example of the poverty and income […]
Meningitis is an infectious disease that causes the swelling of the protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. The symptoms involve severe headache, stiffness of the neck and sensitivity to light. In 2009, 88,000 people in Sub-Saharan African were infected with meningitis and more than 5,000 died. To alleviate this problem, the Bill […]
Measuring poverty can be tricky. Income is a good place to start, but it does not tell the whole story. A recent graduate can live comfortably on the same amount on which a family of four would struggle. Researchers have begun to search for more comprehensive measures of poverty. One such measure is the Multi-Dimensional […]
As an energy source packed with vitamins and nutrients, rice serves as the main source of food and nutrition for a majority of the world’s population. Brown unmilled rice contains the most nutritional and mineral value, whereas white rice loses much of its nutritional value after being refined. The USDA plans to address this by […]
The Better World Fund was founded in 1998 by media mogul, philanthropist, and humanitarian Ted Turner. The man who brought us the cable station CNN started the Fund as an umbrella organization to facilitate public-private partnerships to address a range of global concerns, including health crises and environmental problems. The fund also serves as an advocacy and […]
The foothills of the Moroto Mountains in northeastern Uganda are marked by hundreds of holes dug by eager villagers in search of gold. Close by, mining machinery installed by the private mining company, Jan Mangle Company Ltd., crank noisily in search of the same. The relatively recent discovery of gold in the Karamoja region holds […]
